"But I am not of Cos," I said.
"Aiii!" cried several of the men about.
"You have drunk from a high bowl," I said, "and more than once you have spoken untruthfully, for example, in denying you sensed slave feelings in yourself."
"Forgive me, Masters!" she cried.
"Too," I said, "you have demeaned the men of Ar."
"Forgive me, Masters!" she wept. "You are men! You are men! A slave begs forgiveness!" Her concern was certainly not out of place. The demeaning of men, whereas it is permitted to, and not unknown among, free women, is not permitted to female slaves. Such, on their part, can be a capital offense. "More importantly," I said, "you have not been pleasing."
She looked at me, wildly.
"Remove her tunic," I said.
She was then amongst us, on her knees, a stripped slave. She was comely. I then turned away from her. "What is new on the public boards?" I asked a fellow.
"Master! Master!" cried the girl, behind me.
"What of the slave?" asked a man.
"You are men," I said. "Doubtless you will know what to do with her."
One of the fellows looked at me.
"For example," I said, "she was thirsty. Perhaps you can see, then, that her thirst is quenched."
"That we will," said a fellow, taking charge of the matter.
"What of these others?" asked another man.
"Read their collars," I said. "And then instruct them to return to their masters and give them such a night of slave pleasure as they would not have conceived possible. Then be certain to follow up the matter the next day, to make certain they complied fully."
"We shall," said a fellow.
"What of the next day, and the next?" asked a man.
"I would expect," I said, "that the masters, seeing what their slaves are truly capable of, and what may be obtained of them, will not be shortchanged in the future. On the other hand, if they are not strong enough to obtain the best and finest from their properties I am sure the girls themselves, they then needing true masters, will in one way or another soon obtain a new disposition. Perhaps the weak masters, unable to satisfy them, will weary of seeing the bondage knot in their hair, will weary of their importunities, their moans and whinings in the night, their beggings for use, and either give them, or sell them, to another. Or perhaps the weak masters, whether unable to satisfy them, or merely unwilling to do so, will simply yield to their entreaties to be given away or sold, that they may receive an opportunity for their love, service and beauty to be put at the mercy of someone who can appreciate it and knows what to do with it."
"You heard?" inquired a fellow of the kneeling slaves.
"Yes, Master!" said one of them. "We will give our masters such a night of slave pleasure as they never knew could exist."
"Read the collars," said another fellow.
Names were read, and domiciles. Men were assigned to follow up on each slave, the next morning and report back to a certain metal-worker's shop. "Speed off!" said a fellow.
Quickly, released, the four girls leaped up and hurried away.
Tonight, I thought, there would be at least four astonished fellows in Ar, and four slaves who, by morning, if only by teaching themselves, by their own actions, would have a much better conception of the profoundities, and sensations involved, and significances, of their condition.
"What is new on the boards?" I asked Marcus. I did not really wish to make it clear to the men about that I did not read Gorean as well as I might.
Men crowded happily about me.
"There is to be curfew," said Marcus. "It begins tonight. The streets are to be kept clear between the eighteenth and the fourth Ahn."
"What is the reason for that?" I asked a fellow.
"To limit the movements of the Delta Brigade," he whispered.
"Is there such a thing?" I asked.
"Seremides thinks so," said a man.
"I heard a barracks was burned last night," said a fellow.
"I heard that, too," said Marcus.
"Is it on the boards," I asked.
"No," said a man.
"No," said Marcus. "I do not think so."
"Then it must not have happened," said a fellow, grimly.
"Of course," said another.
I heard the slave, some yards off, at the fountain, crying out. She had been taken to the lower bowl of the fountain. There she was sputtering and gasping, and crying out for mercy. Again and again was her head, held by the hair, forced down, held under the water and then jerked up again. "Please, Masters! Mercy, Masters!" she wept.
"The delka has been forbidden!" said Marcus. "It says so, here!"
"Interesting," I said.
"That is the first public recognition of the Delta Brigade," said a fellow. I now heard the sound of a lash. The girl had her head down, her wet hair forward. She was held on her knees by the fountain, a wrist in the hands of each of two fellows. She shook under each blow. Then, when they had finished, she was on her hands and knees, head down. Her entire body was trembling. She slipped to the pavement. Her hair was about. She lay there. It seemed she could hardly believe what had been done to her. I supposed this was the first time she had been lashed. It is something no slave forgets. A fellow then drew her up again, by the hair, to all fours and, looming over her, pointed to the fountain. She now, slowly, painfully, crawled to the fountain, between the men, and then, putting her head down, and as was fitting for her, and as she should have done earlier in the afternoon, drank from the lower bowl. She was then pulled back and put prone on the pavement. Her hands were pulled behind her and fastened there, with a short thong.
"Is there more on the boards?" I asked Marcus.
"I think those are the main items of interest," he said.
I saw the girl placed on her belly over the stone lip of the lower bowl of the fountain. She cried out. Her small hands twisted in the thongs, behind her back. Men crowded about her.
"Glory to the Delta Brigade," said a man.
"Who are of the Delta Brigade?" asked a man.
"Who knows?" said another.
"They must be veterans of the delta campaign," said a man.
"Perhaps others, too," said a fellow.
"A fellow was asking me where he could join the Delta Brigade," said a man. "Perhaps a spy," conjectured a fellow.
That seemed to me likely.
"I heard that they tried to take in a veteran for questioning," said a man. "What happened?" I asked a fellow.
"He drew a sword from beneath his cloak," said a man.
"Swords are forbidden," said a fellow.
"Doubtless there are some about," said a man.
"What happened?" I asked.
"He slew two Cosians and disappeared," said the man.
"It may be dangerous to try to take in the veterans of the delta," said a man. "Probably they will leave the city," I said.
"Why?" asked a man.
"They will be suspect," I said.
"There are warriors and guardsmen in the city," said a man, "who are not veterans of the delta."
"That is true," I said. Also, of course, it was not only in the delta that blood had been shed.
"Ah," said Marcus, glancing over toward the fountain, "here comes the insolent little slut now."